Corsair

30 Years of Filibustering 1940-1970
By Bruno Pautigny
Histoire & Collections
ISBN: 2-913903-28-2
Hardbound, 127 Pages

Reviewed by Norm Filer

First, a quick trip to the Dictionary to explain the odd word “filibustering” in the title, Mr. Webster has this to say:

“An irregular military adventurer; an American engaged in fomenting insurrections in Latin American in the mid -19th century”

Not much of a stretch to see where one might consider that appropriate for the Corsair.

Perhaps the best description of this book comes from the author himself in the introduction.

“….As I am more particularly an illustrator, I have given priority to the illustrations and iconography, followed by explanations which are deliberately concise but as rigorous as possible. The aim was to tell the thirty hear story of the Corsair’s extraordinary career from it baptism of fire in the Pacific to African skies, passing through the Far-East and a less martial but nonetheless virile interlude in the colourful and exhilarating world of the Pylon Races…..”

The size of this book is rather impressive, a full 12 ½ inches high and 91/4 inches wide and it is all in color. It is printed on really good quality smooth paper that compliments the illustrations. And illustrations there are! When he said in the introduction that he was an illustrator, he was accurate. This book is just crammed full of illustrations that show the differences between versions, and details of all kinds. Tail wheel, Main gear strut, the wing fold area, all the different canopies, the early exhaust pipes and belly dump gate door, are all shown in a rather appealing sepia tone paintings.

I like his method of illustrating details. He uses a sepia tone drawing that is complete where the detail is needed, then fades to just an outline in unimportant areas. It allows you to immediately focus on the area of interest, but still maintain your overall perspective. A good example of this is the page showing canopy evolution.

Actual photos are scattered throughout, usually placed in the appropriate section. The photos are usually very well reproduced, in part due to the high quality, smooth paper, and large enough to actually be able to pick out the details.

My first impressions were that it was lacking in text. But as I have reread sections and read captions as well as the brief paragraphs of text, I realize that the facts are there. The nice part is the text is where it needs to be, accompanying the illustrations, not in a long chapter of history and development. Another plus for me was small but concise paragraphs of history related to that period of Corsair use. Often accompanied with maps and words to “place” the Corsair in the location.

But, again as Bruno said, he is an illustrator. Indeed he is. They are what this book is all about. There are over 20 beautiful side view illustrations of just the bird cage model of the Corsair, then five more of the rather rare F4U-2 birdcage night fighter. There were only 34 of those built, (see, the facts are there).

More of the “standard” F4U-1A and 1D than the average modeler could ever build, and then into the supercharger efforts and then it is into the Super Corsairs and even the post war use as racers. All of course are well illustrated with both side view profiles and detail sepia tone like paintings.

After a brief section on the British and New Zealanders, it is time to take a long detailed look at the post war Bent Wing Bird. This part is every bit as good as the WWII part.

Keeping in mind that this was originally a French language book, it should be no surprise that that country’s use of the Corsair in Indochina, Algeria, Egypt and Tunisia is well documented. A pleasant bonus is the illustrations of all four of the French Squadron insignia during that time frame. Another interesting aside, there have been some discussions about the use of black or just the normal background Sea Blue in the “Suez Stripes”. There are four side views given here with both ways explained.

Are you getting the idea I like this book? I do a lot. And I am not even a big Corsair fan. The balance of text, photos, detail illustrations, reproduction of old magazine ads, and the huge quantity of profiles just makes this a great reference book.

If there is a negative it probably is the rather odd English translation from the original French. Nothing unreadable or even grammatically incorrect, just rather unusual uses of words here and there and somewhat stilted phrases now and then.